The Tories today denied there was a link between low income and poor health, calling for those on low salaries to spend less money on "beer and fags".

David Davies, Tory AM for Monmouth, attacked the Assembly's plans to invest money into areas with low average wages in a bid to tackle poor health in Wales.

He told AMs: "I think that it is unacceptable that life expectancy varies across different parts of Wales, but it's very disappointing that instead of thinking about the underlying causes of this, the Welsh Assembly Government has simply made an assumption that somebody earning #200 is more likely to fall ill than somebody earning #400 a week.

"It's a very simplistic argument and therefore it follows on according to the Welsh Assembly Government that the answer is to put more money into areas with lower average wages.

"I would contend that this is a classic case of treating the symptoms rather than actually curing the disease."

He added: "What we should in fact be doing is educating people on the benefits of regular exercise and healthy eating."

Liberal Democrat Peter Black said: "David, don't you accept that if you have a lower income inevitably your lifestyle is going to be much different to that of a millionaire or someone who has a much higher income and that therefore your eating habits and they way you live is going to affect your health?"

Mr Davies replied: "I will sit down on this one comment, beer and fags are a lot more expensive than fresh fruit and regular exercise."

The NHS Resource Allocations Review Report which was debated in plenary is aimed at addressing poor health in Wales and recommends that funds are allocated according to health needs as opposed to population.

Kirsty Williams, Liberal Democrat AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, said: "The crass and insulting comments by David Davies and some of his colleagues this morning basically fail to understand the driver behind this report.

"It's not about fruit and vegetables, it's about the effect of living in a dangerous environment, in a poorly ventilated or insulated house, about not having a job.

"It's not about whether you drink or whether you smoke."

Health minister Jane Hutt accused Mr Davies of attempting to undermine the good work of the report, adding of those on low incomes: "They don't want David Davies preaching to them on smoking and their health habits."

Tory health spokesman David Melding defended Mr Davies's stance, arguing that it was an aggressive stance as part of this week's National No Smoking Day.

He also argued the recommendations for reallocation of funds failed to take into account the new NHS structure in Wales.

Reallocation of funds is based on Wales's five health authorities, which are set to be replaced with 22 Local Health Boards.

Mr Melding said: "We're just got the historical information about the Health Authorities we are going to abolish. We're having a mock debate."

He added: "The danger here is that with 22 units we could create some very big winners and some very severe losers."

Shadow health minister Dai Lloyd welcomed the report, but stressed that more needed to be done to deliver healthcare provision in line with need.

Jane Hutt said: "The new resource allocation formula has been designed to include an age-weighting adjustment to compensate areas with more than average numbers of older people for the additional costs of treatment, and to include an adjustment to reflect the unavoidable travel intensive additional costs of community services in rural areas.

"Over the coming months further formula refinement work will be undertaken on the Prescribing and General Medical Services element of the formula together with further work on unavoidable additional costs associated with rural and urban environments."